FINTRAC Webinars - Reporting Obligations for Accountants

by Bookkeeping Essentials
(BC Canada)

I was reading the TaxDetective.ca blog which had a link to Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

The link lead to Webinar for Reporting Entities - Accountants, Real Estate Brokers, and Sales Representatives.

This three part webinar explains the reporting obligations that came into effect on June 23, 2008 regarding "Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA)".

You can find the series at www.fintrac-canafe.gc.ca> Publications> Multimedia > Accountants, Real Estate Brokers, and Sales Representatives .

For those that prefer reading to webinars, there is a transcript. Here are three excerpts:

A reminder again that the requirement for accountants is to identify when they receive $3,000 or more, whether in cash or otherwise, but it does not apply to professional fees.

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The information that needs to be kept ... : name, address, date of birth of the individual from whom the funds were received, nature of principal business and occupation, and then the transaction details. For accountants, there is a client identification requirement to identify who has provided $3,000 or more and then a requirement to actually keep a receipt of funds record with all of the details ...

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In terms of record keeping, now there is a requirement to keep a copy of the suspicious transaction reports (STRs) for both attempted and completed transactions, and a new requirement to take reasonable measures to ascertain the identity of anyone completing a suspicious transaction. The exception to this is that if you think that by asking for a piece of ID you are going to tip off the client, then you do not have to identify.

The five methods of non face to face client identifications are covered in addition face to face methods.